Destroying forests for farming and urban life can upset wildlife balance, trigger Covid-19-like pandemics: Study
Destroying forests to create spaces for agriculture and urban life could trigger another Covid-19-like pandemic, researchers warn in their new study. This change in land use could upset the natural balance of wildlife by allowing animals — with the potential of spreading diseases — to proliferate.
Researchers from University College London looked at close to 7,000 animals to understand the link between a change in land use and the prevalence of animals that carry pathogens. These disease hosts have a 21% – 144% higher abundance in areas under human control than other undisturbed regions, they found. However, it is also important to remember that bats —which is believed to have been the original hosts of Covid-19, SARS, for example — have a role to play in the ecosystem. They pollinate and disperse the seeds of plants and keep insects in check. According to one study, bats eat insects that can harm agricultural produce, thereby reducing the annual pesticide bill of the in the US by $22.9 billion, on average.
"Global land-use change is primarily characterized by the conversion of natural landscapes for agriculture, particularly for food production," Dr Kate Jones from UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research and ZSL Institute of Zoology, and one of the authors of the study, said.
"The way humans change landscapes across the world, from natural forest to farmland, for example, has consistent impacts on many wild animal species, causing some to decline while some others persist or increase," lead author, Rory Gibb from the UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research, said. "Our findings show that the animals that remain in more human-dominated environments are those that are more likely to carry infectious diseases that can make people sick."
In this study, researchers gathered and analyzed data on 6,801 ecological communities from six continents. They found that a higher prevalence of 376 species that carry pathogens in human spaces. As a result, the team is calling for a change in how we use and manage land to reduce spillovers of viruses or mitigate risks of another pandemic like the Covid-19.
"As agricultural and urban lands are predicted to continue expanding in the coming decades, we should be strengthening disease surveillance and healthcare provision in those areas that are undergoing a lot of land disturbance, as they are increasingly likely to have animals that could be hosting harmful pathogens," Dr Jones said. "Our findings provide a context for thinking about how to manage land-use changes more sustainably, in ways that take into account potential risks not only to biodiversity but also to human health," co-lead author, Dr David Redding, explained.
Viruses from animals have jumped to humans to cause diseases such as HIV, SARS and Nipah. Experts have blamed humans for the spate of outbreaks in the recent past. Covid-19 is believed to have emerged in a wildlife market. Previously, more than 200 wildlife groups from across the globe wrote to the World Health Organization (WHO), urging them to place a permanent ban on all live wildlife markets and their use in traditional medicine.
The study is published in Nature.